After
7 months of planning, and numerous times of corrections, it was finally possible
to do the 4 corners!!!

It
all started about 7 months ago, when I had an idea of going to the northernmost,
southernmost, easternmost and westernmost place you can reach with SL. At first,
the plan seemed impossible, as back then I was planning for Ellan Vändplan,
Sollenkroka, Ankarudden, and Hanholmen. But through time, I noticed that
Simpnäs Brygga was the easternmost place you could go by SL. But hoping as an
advantage for me, it became even harder, since bus 636 and 637 were both rare
bus lines.

And
so I worked with Ellan, Simpnäs, Ankarudden, and Hanholmen for a few weeks. But
no matter what I try, it never works. And so I gave up on this idea...

It
was not until a month ago, when SL changed to its summer timetable, that I found
out that it would be possible to do the 4 corners.

At
first, the time seemed crazy, since it would mean me waiting for more than 3
hours at Norrtälje Busstation, during the very early morning. But then I found
out that Räfsnäs Brygga was even more east than the earlier Simpnäs Brygga.
So I hoped that it would be possible to execute 4 corners.

And
it was possible!!!

But
then just when success was in the air, I found that Nygård was even more west
than Hanholmen, so 4 corners was at stake again.

But
this was no big problem, the connections were still perfect, with the exception
that I have to do 4 corners on a Friday.

And
so I did 4 corners last Friday (20050708) and it was pretty much a success.

Here
are the pictures:

Here
is a view of the meadow separating Lappis and Universitetet in the early morning
(around 05:00).

Time:
05:22, the second subway bounding for Fruängen on Friday. Sorry about the
picture quality for this picture; It was taken in a rush.

Time:
05:30. This is the very first 676 from Stockholms Östra for the day, although
there were more passengers on this bus than a bus that departs during the day
time.

Here
is the first bus arriving from Stockholm at Norrtälje Busstation, i.e. the bus
which I took. And behind is the bus 641 which is also the first one of the day
to go to Hallsta Papersbruk-Hallstavik.

And
so after a 25 minutes wait it was time for the first corner, the easternmost,
which is Räfsnäs Brygga. Here we see bus 631X with barely more than 3 people
on the bus the whole way!

Here
we see the same bus again, but at Räfsnäs Brygga, the easternmost you can
reach by SL.

And
so here is the bus again, back at Norrtälje Busstation.

And
now it would be a 60 minutes wait, so I took the chance and went on two rounds
of bus 650, Grindslingan and Vigelsjösligan.

After
taking bus 650, I stood in the queue for bus 637, so that's why I unfortunately
didn't have the opportunity to take a picture of bus 637 at Norrtälje
Busstation.

Now
it's time for the northernmost place you can reach with SL, Ellan Vändplan. Bus
637 is not only the bus which goes to the northernmost place you can reach with
SL, it's also the bus route with has the longest distance.

And
we are here! Ellan Vändplan, the absolute northermost place you can reach with
SL. If you happen to see a person behind the bus, it would be the driver. He was
standing on that side of the bus, or should I say in the shade most of the time
at Ellan Vändplan.

I
took a walk a bit more north during the resting time, since the bus was 10
mintues early, so I had 25 minutes on me.

And
here is the bus 637 again back at Norrtälje Busstation, this time arriving
right on time, since it had to wait for the 636 at Älmsta Busstation.

And
now I have to go all the way from Norrtälje to Södertälje to in order to
reach the westernmost place you can reach with SL.

I'm
took the next bus 676 (12:40) 676 to Stockholm since the previous one was too
full even though it was an articulated bus.

Here
is the bus again at Stockholms Östra.

Then
I took the subway to T-Centralen and there I changed to the commuter train to
Södertälje Centrum with 9 minutes delay.

And I
had to wait for 57 mintues at Södertälje Centrum for bus 780 which I will take
to Värsta Backe.

Here
is the bus 780 which I took from Södertälje Centrum to Värsta Backe.

Here
is the bus 782 which I took to Taxinge-Nygård.

Here
is the bus 782 at Taxinge.

It
was a bit confusing about whether this bus goes to Nygård or not since the
driver said that he turns back over here, at Taxinge. But then on the way back
to Nykvarn, he went passed by an area, which I suspected was Nygård. So if that
area was Nygård, then I passed did, without taking a picture of it. If there is
not such thing as a bus station called Nygård, then SL's timetable is wrong,
again.

What
a ride. The bus 782 was so empty...

Anyways,
here is the bus 780 which I took back to Södertälje Centrum.

Time
for the last corner!!! Ankarudden, the southernmost you can reach with SL. But I
have to take bus 783 to Nynäshamns Station first. And there, I have to wait for
almost 2 hours until the 852 comes.

Here
is a picture of bus 852 at Nynäshamns Station.

After
a bumpy and risky ride, I finally arrived at Ankarudden, with 2 minutes delay,
so I had to take this picture in a rush, since the bus had 0 minute resting time
here.

Here
is the commuter train which I took back to Stockholm.

And
then I changed to the subway and took it to Universitetet.

And
then I took bus 40 home.

Here
is an extra picture (the driver was rushing back to Odenplan):

My
Conclusion:

I
felt that everything went went well, with the exception for bus 852.

There
is no way that that bus will make it in 30 minutes. The driver was over speeding
pretty much the whole way and still came 2 minutes late. And remember, I took
the 22:00 bus, which is pretty late, so there wasn't much traffic. So think
about it during the day time, when SL still says it only takes 30 minutes...

It
should take about 10-12 minutes to Norsbol from Nynäshamns Station. And then SL
should give the driver at least 30 minutes to drive from Norsbol to Ankarudden.
You could see through the driver that he was under extreme stress, so I wouldn't
blame anything on the driver or Busslink, it's SL that deserves the blame. There
are way too many 90 degrees turns over there, and it's impossible to see if
there are any cars coming from the opposite side. So if there were any cars,
yesterday would have a terrible accident.

There
are no traffic lights, street lights or reflectors on the road. So it's
just a death trap.

This
is the scale of the speed which the driver was driving:

Max.
Speed
Driver's
Speed
Remark

30
km/h School Area 80-90
km/h
Came 2 minutes late at Ankarudden

30
km/h City Area 40-50
km/h

50
km/h
85-95 km/h

50
km/h*
65-70
km/h
Came 2 minutes late at Ankarudden

70
km/h
90-110
km/h
Came 2 minutes early at Nynäshamns Station

70
km/h**
80-85
km/h
Came 2 minutes late at Ankarudden/2 minutes early
at
Nynäshamns Station

* =
90 degrees turn or more. The driver had no chance of seeing if there were any
cars on the opposite direction.

* =
90 degrees turn or more. The driver had a bit of visibility of whether there is
traffic on the opposite side or not.

My
conclusion for bus 852:

SL's
timetable for bus 852 is a death trap for both the driver and the passengers on
board. They speed in which the driver had to drive in order to be on time was unacceptable.
And remember, this happened during 22:00 to 23:00, SL thinks it takes the same
amount of time from Nyäshamns Station to Norsbol at 10:00, 17:00 and 22:00...

This
page was created on 20050709 and was last updated on
Sunday, December 23, 2007 18:38